Microsoft Expands Rebootless Display Driver Upgrade Patent

[cpatel1987]

Umm I've been able to do that with my RADEON 6850 since the day I purchased it...I'm going to go patent something stupid now.

 

[back_by_demand]

[citation][nom]cpatel1987[/nom]Umm I've been able to do that with my RADEON 6850 since the day I purchased it...I'm going to go patent something stupid now.[/citation]
Perhaps the usage of the patent has been around for years in some form, but only the granting of the patent happened recently, stop, breathe - ah yes...

 

[jonjonjon]

wow i really need to file some patents and then sue everyone and make millions. im going to patent if then statements and loops in all computer code. so now no other os can stop a driver and start a new one without paying ms? our government sucks on so many levels. this would be funny if it wasnt true.

 

[Rhinofart]

[citation][nom]r3p00t[/nom]The reason for requiring a reboot isn't because it was never possible until this "amazing technical feat by the geniuseses at M$", the reason it was required before was just to ensure you're dumb @$$ didn't decide to try swapping 3d drivers whilst running 3d applications. The obvious reason is that either a file is locked preventing a successful install, or that the entire system crashes before the driver install is finished, leaving you with no display when it comes back up.Of course, if you'd rather chance it by not rebooting, you just might get what you deserve... Besides, Windows is hardly a 24/7/365 mission-critical operating system anyways, even their server OS should be rebooted at least once a month.[/citation]

How do you figure once a month? Hell, my organization has windows boxes that are going on just under 600 days since last reboot, and they work like a charm.

 

[memadmax]

[citation][nom]Fokissed[/nom]Good thing the USPTO doesn't require either of those. Patent fees are next to nothing for small entities.[/citation]

Yea, duh...

But what about defending your patent?

 

[hetneo]

[citation][nom]p05esto[/nom]Not sure about this patent, they must be missing something. I'm guessing it's the technology behind the scenes here that we're really talking about. It must be something no one else has thought of just yet.[/citation]
Nope, you are not missing anything, as with all patents today they are very broad and not technical at all.

[citation][nom]InvalidError[/nom]What OS would that be? Even Windows 3.0 could change resolutions without reloading. Switching color depth on the other hand had a tendency to mess things up and require a reboot to fix it. Since cards back then only had 1-4MB RAM, increasing resolution often came at the expense of color depth and the aforementioned glitches.[/citation]
There used to be other OS before Windows 3.0, heck you can say that not even in MS are they silly enough to start counting from 3. Jeez ever heard of BSD, Sun OS, System V, Amiga OS, BeOS, OS/2 or something other than Windows, Mac, Linux and Android?